Shadow of the Day
by BryHatesYou
Summary: Sadstuck, humanstuck AU.
1. Chapter 1

Your name is John Egbert and you're currently in a trance.

You're watching, gazing more like, in awe at Dave Strider as he stood up in front of the crowd fearlessly and spat out raps and rhymes like nothing you've ever seen before. Besides you, his girlfriend, Terezi Pyrope sat, twirling her straw in a cherry milkshake as she listened intently, a faint smile gracing her black-painted lips. You can see her bloodshot, sightless eyes when you look at her from the side – her elegant red glasses usually concealed them. They're half-lidded and pointed straight ahead.

Dave had invited you both along to watch his performance at the weekly open mic night in the club downtown. You've heard him rap, but never with an audience. He was, well, amazing. Stunning.

You bring a glass full of pepsi cola to your lips and drink, almost choking as Strider changed his pace, his voice crooning softly to his acoustic guitar. He's playing a romantic sounding song, obviously dedicated to Terezi, which was sweet. He didn't usually show much affection towards her, which she seemed cool with. Who knows, maybe he was a huge sap when he was alone with her. The song was too adorable and romantic to be ironic. Terezi's lucky.

You shoot her a look, and her face has lit up clearly, and her hands have dropped from the straw to her face, leaning her head in her hands while she listened.

You look back at Dave and his head is turned to the table you and Terezi are sat at, the ghost of a smile on his lips. Terezi is _lucky._

Once Dave finished his performance, he came over to sit with you both, choosing a seat between you both, and you caught a glimpse of Terezi's fingers intertwining with his under the table.

"Nice work, Dave!" You compliment, clapping his shoulder in congratulations. He was by far the best act that had been on.

"Thanks, man." He said calmly, giving you a nod and lifting his drink while Terezi engaged him in some sort of conversation, promptly making you feel awkward, like a third wheel. Terezi was great, and she was nice and all, but she would always make you feel second in Dave's books. Which you guess _should_ be the case, and you'd think something was up if it wasn't, but you can't help but feel a little jealous. You accepted it, leaning back and watching the remaining acts. You couldn't help but pick on their conversation when Pyrope let out her high pitched, vaguely irritating cackle.

"Oohh, Mr Strider, ooh!" She fell into giggles again, and Dave let out a snort.

"But seriously," She continued. You turned to glance at them both at this point. They didn't notice. You look back to the small stage. "I can't come to yours tomorrow, I forgot I had an appointment at the hospital.."

"Jesus, why do you even have to go to those? You're blind and that's that, right? Surely you don't need them peering behind your eyes every month." Dave ranted, though his voice never rose above his usual speaking tone.

"You would think so." She grumbled, sighing. "But no, they just keep checking for whatever made me blind _eighteen years _ago."

Dave snorted again. You felt another pang of jealousy – she was the only one who could draw so much "laughter" from him, the things she said weren't even that funny.

"Who knows, maybe they'll find a dragon back there." He suggested sarcastically, making a dig at Pyrope's obsession with dragons.

"Of course, because a dragon hid behind _both_ of my eyes when I hadn't even been _born_ yet."

They both collapsed into ironic laughter.

The night continues like this until you get fed up and announce that you're leaving. Neither do much to stop you, so you head off, shrugging into your jacket and heading home. You collapse onto your sofa , flicking through the channels. Finding an old Nick Cage movie, you settle down for the night.

You dream of Dave.


	2. Chapter 2

**- ectoBiologist ****[EB]**** began pestering turntechGodhead ****[TG]**** at 15:12 -**

**[03:13] ****EB: hey dave!**

**[03:13] ****TG: oh hey**

**[03:13] ****TG: sup kid**

**[03:13] ****EB: nothing much**

**[03:13] ****EB: hey, have you seen the trailer for the new ghost rider?**

**[03:13] ****EB: it looks really good**

**[03:14] ****TG: yeah ive seen the trailer**

**[03:14] ****TG: it looks shit man**

**[03:14] ****TG: if its anything as cheesy as the original**

**[03:14] ****TG: no way am i watching it with you dont even get that into your head egderp**

**[03:15] ****EB: how did you know i was going to ask you? jeez.**

**[03:15] ****TG: pretty obvious man**

**[03:15] ****TG: anyway**

**[03:15] ****TG: if i go to see it with anyone itd be terezi**

**[03:15] ****EB: huh**

**[03:15] ****EB: figures..**

**[03:15] ****TG: um ok**

**[03:15] ****TG: so**

**[03:15] ****TG: speaking of terezi**

**[03:15] ****TG: has she spoken to you recently**

**[03:15] ****EB: no, why?**

**[03:16] ****EB: is something up, have you been arguing?**

**[03:16] ****TG: no no nothing like that**

**[03:16] ****TG: she just**

**[03:16] ****TG: seems a bit off ever since tuesday**

**[03:16] ****EB: tuesday? the day after your open mic night?**

**[03:16] ****TG: yeah **

**[03:16] ****TG: shes just**

**[03:17] ****EB: what's up with her?**

**[03:17] ****TG: god hold on john im explaining that**

**[03:17] ****TG: she just seems a bit distant**

**[03:17] ****TG: like shes not telling me something**

**[03:17] ****TG: i dont know**

**[03:17] ****TG: shes not talking as much**

**[03:18] ****TG: i dont really know she just doesnt seem like herself**

**[03:18] ****EB: aw, look at dave, getting all concerned!**

**[03:18] ****TG: hey shut up man**

**[03:18] ****TG: i really am concerned this is my girlfriend were talking about**

**[03:18] ****TG: i hope she doesnt split up with me**

**[03:19] ****TG: did you know i was planning to propose**

You freeze. You feel sick to your stomach, and an overwhelming feeling of hurt washes over you, like someone has punched you in the chest. You can't breathe. No, that doesn't make sense. Why do you feel hurt?

"Dave has every right to propose to his fucking _girlfriend,_ you moron." You tell yourself, leaning your head in your hands.

You take a shaky breath in, feeling a familiar stinging sensation behind your eyes. You blame it on the pollen in the air – it was spring and that's usually when your hay fever made itself known. Except no windows are open.

Your shaky hands return to your keyboard.

**[03:21] ****EB: wait, what?**

**[03:21] ****EB: propose?**

**[03:21] ****EB: as in**

**[03:21] ****TG: yeah**

**[03:21] ****TG: as in**

**[03:22] ****TG: get married**

No, no, no, no, no, no, no...

**[03:22] ****TG: i was planning to propose on tuesday**

**[03:22] ****TG: i asked her out to this fancy restaurant for a meal but she had that appointment**

**[03:23] ****TG: thats what the song at the club was about**

**[03:23] ****TG: buttering her up you know**

**[03:23] ****TG: but i dont know**

**[03:23] ****TG: she just doesnt seem happy**

**[03:24] ****TG: john?**

**[03:27] ****TG: dude dont leave me hanging like this**

**[03:29] ****TG: i mean fuck im legitimately scared here**

**[03:34] ****TG: fuck seriously john please help a bro out here**

You suddenly get rather fed up of Dave's problems, and sign out of Pesterchum. Then shut your old, clunky computer down completely.

Shit.

No.

This was not happening.

This was all wrong.

Dave is your _best friend_, you should be _helping_ him, not getting angry at him for wanting to marry his girlfriend.

What was he thinking anyway? Terezi's _eighteen_, and Dave's twenty! They were both way too young to be marrying, they had so much of their lives left and now you sound like your dad.

Why do you still feel like someone's stamping all over your heart? Why do you still feel sick and heartbroken? Why does it suspiciously feel like you're in love with Dave?

Instead of attempting to face these questions, and the truth, you decide to crawl back into your bed and ignore the texts you kept receiving from Dave and Rose.

* * *

><p>Your name is Dave Strider, and you are currently freaking the fuck out.<p>

You fucking _love_ Terezi, more than _anything_ in this world, and you can't think _what_ you could have done to upset her so much.

You hold a subtly jewelled, silver and diamond ring in your hand, and are rolling it through your fingers. You stroke the Braille you'd had engraved on the inside of it. It read "Coolkids forever, babe." You can't read Braille, but you thought about learning it after a lengthy conversation about it with Terezi.

Your eyes hurt, your shades lying on your computer desk. You want to scream. You rub your dry, scratchy eyes.

You hope you're looking too much into it.

You hope there's nothing wrong and she's maybe just on her period or feeling a little ill.

Your tired mind runs through every heartbreaking possibility – is she cheating? You know that Vantas kid was hopelessly in love with the girl since she broke his heart after a bad fight.

You'd got into hospital, after you were mugged then stabbed. She bailed on a date with him to visit you in hospital, and she was crying over you. He'd said some nasty shit to her about her crying over you. So she dumped his sorry ass. Karkat hated you ever since. Oh well.

You doubt she was with _him_. What about that Vriska girl? They were close once. Once. She was a bitch and upset Terezi quite a bit, now they weren't so close. Jesus, a lot of people were bitchy towards your girlfriend. She didn't deserve it. She was _so nice. _In her own way, she was the nicest person you know. Even Jade and John can be a little malicious sometimes. Terezi is compassionate and amazing and beautiful, and now you're just hurting yourself more.

You can't lose her.

No way.

You pick up your phone, calling her.

"Hey, Terezi, are you alright?" You jump right in there when she picks up, and you struggle to hide the emotions in your voice.

"_Hey Dave. I'm fine, really, you can stop asking." _You hear a forced laugh from her side. _"I just...can we meet up later? I have to tell you something important."_

Oh shit.

"What is it?" You mutter in reply, unable to say anything else.

Please, please, no. Please. Please.

"_I'll tell you in person, Dave."_ She sounded so sad.

No.

You force confusion in to your voice. "What, why?"

"_It's pretty big and not good. I'm sorry, I really have to tell you, in person? I'll come over in an hour."_

No, no, no, no. How do you have tears left? No...

"I love you."

"_I love you too."_

She hung up.

FUCK.


End file.
